Wow, it's amazing how everyone thinks Google Video entered against the entrenched Youtube and lost.
Google Video preceded Youtube. Google Video was launched before Youtube was even formed as a company. Youtube just straight up out-competed Google Video. Probably being a startup, capable of being naughty[1], staying closer to the copyright infringement line, and being willing to piss of big media companies helped them gain lots of users.
I don't think Dropbox has a parallel advantage in this area. I don't see how being naughty is going to help them in this product area. But of course, they are a talented and focused startup.
Google video was launched on January 25, 2005.[2]
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.[3]
Actually, the Google Videos version that originally launched was nothing like YouTube. Google Videos was originally made to search closed captioned TV, not to service user uploaded content. Also the original Google Video did not actually let you watch any videos.
Google changed to copy YouTube's style of video hosting after YouTube already gained traction. The version of Google Videos that people are familiar with came out after YouTube. The version of Google Videos that you're talking about died.
Google Video preceded Youtube. Google Video was launched before Youtube was even formed as a company. Youtube just straight up out-competed Google Video. Probably being a startup, capable of being naughty[1], staying closer to the copyright infringement line, and being willing to piss of big media companies helped them gain lots of users.
I don't think Dropbox has a parallel advantage in this area. I don't see how being naughty is going to help them in this product area. But of course, they are a talented and focused startup.
Google video was launched on January 25, 2005.[2]
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.[3]
[1] http://paulgraham.com/founders.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Videos [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube